A New Mission, A New Partner
by ArrowFey
Summary: Alex Rider is finished with MI6 but it seems that they aren't quite willing to let him go yet. When Alex is offered another mission he flat out refuses. But it seems that wasn't an option as he finds himself preparing for another adventure with a partner
1. Prolouge

**This is my first attempt at fanfic, hopefully it isn't too bad!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Alex Rider or anything out of the Alex Rider books**

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Alex Rider stormed into the plain-looking office of Royal and General Bank, glaring at the relaxed man sitting behind the commercial desk. "What. Do. You. Want!" He bit off each word, pouring all his anger and frustration into the four syllables.

Alan Blunt met Alex's enraged gaze evenly. "We have another mission for you," he began. "Our contacts recently found—"

"No way!" Alex interrupted sending Blunt a savage glare. "I am _done _with MI6. I'm not a spy. I told you last time, I want nothing to do with you." Alex turned away in disgust and stalked out of the room.

"You are wrong, Alex," Alan Blunt called after the teen boy. A small smile played his thin lips. "You may be done with MI6, but we are not done with you."

_Two days before_

"Mr. Blunt," a timid voice called through the door. Alan Blunt smiled to himself.

"Enter."

His newest secretary, Ms. Kelisen, opened the door a stepped in. The small Asian lady was in her mid-twenties, dressed formally in a navy blue dress suit. Stylish glasses perched on the end of her angular nose framing her serious green eyes. She seemed determined to do a good job, though Blunt knew that no one stayed for long. "We have received the information you requested, sir." Clutched in both hands was a bulging file.

Blunt allowed himself another smile. "Is Delmond involved," he said as she set the manila folder on his desk. She nodded in confusion. "I thought so." He waved his hand in dismissal and turned his attention to the file. Linda Kelisen nodded respectfully and backed out of the room as was her country's custom. Blunt ignored her.

He carefully undid the simple knot that secured the many papers together and glanced at the first sheet. It was an overview of ASHE's latest action. An unfortunate turn of events: he had lost several agents when the nuclear plant had self destructed. He flipped aimlessly through the papers until he came to the list of names. Participants. Their file numbers listed beside their names.

**Ash- deceased. 27**

**Cano, Mitchell. 18**

**Gribensk, James. 22**

**Koren, Amelia. 11**

**Lind, Corbin. 16**

**Yee, Young. 9**

**Purcell, Amos. 31**

**Delmond, Angus. 13**

Alan Blunt stopped and studied the last name as if watching it would unlock the secrets he sought. He deliberately opened to file 13 and studied it critically for a moment. "This time we'll find you, Angus. I have my own secret weapon this time."

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**And that's the end of the joint prologues**

**How was it? Please review!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Alex Rider :'( but the new characters in this chapter are mine ;)**

**(and please please review!)**

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Alex stared moodily out of the heavily tinted window of the non-descript MI6 vehicle. The shoulder strap of his messenger bag dug uncomfortably into his flesh, but Alex ignored it. The black car stopped several blocks from his school. Alex got out and slammed the door angrily behind him. He didn't bother to thank the driver.

"Alex!"

Alex didn't turn. If Tom really wanted to talk, he'd just have to walk faster. Alex was not in a good mood after talking with MI6.

"Hey," Tom panted, finally catching up. "Whoa what happened to you?" he said when he saw Alex's angry and sleep deprived face. "Studying for finals isn't that bad is it?" he joked.

Alex shook his head. "Nightmares." Tom waited for him to elaborate. "I don't want to talk about it," Alex finally muttered, breaking into a swift jog. For now all he wanted was to be alone with his thoughts. Alex pushed open the school doors and wove around the few other teens. His destination was the science lab to drop off the books he had read last night. Tom had been right about all the studying taking a toll on his health even though that was the least of his problems right now. Alex made a quick stop at the men's room and splashed some cold water on his face.

He examined his reflection and was pleased with how much his haggard appearance had changed. He smiled wryly and exited, almost running into the principal. "Sorry," he muttered, rather embarrassed.

"Alex! Just the person I wanted to see!" the middle aged man exclaimed, beaming. "Meet James and Jennifer." He waved towards a well-built boy about his age with tanned skin and slim dark colored girl behind him. Both smiled coolly and gave Alex a small nod. "They are a new students here," principal Crowler continued. "Their family just moved here from America. I was wondering if you could show them around."

Alex blinked. Why had Principal Crowler chosen him? Not that he minded overly much, but there had to be students with a better reputation than his. Most of the teachers thought he had gotten into drugs or needed therapy. "Sure," he heard himself say.

"Good, good," Crowley murmured, obviously nervous. He glanced at the new kids (Jennifer and James?) once more before walking away.

They waited until the principal was out of sight before speaking. "I'm James," the boy introduced himself. "And this is Jenni."

"Alex."

They smiled again, but now that the principal was gone it seemed more genuine. "Nice to meet you." Watching them Alex almost felt as if he knew them, or someone like them, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He wanted very much to ask, it was driving him mad.

"I was just on my way to the science lab, so we can start our tour there," he said instead. Jenni nodded, her serious blue eyes calculating. Her gaze made Alex's skin crawl.

James smiled broadly. Alex could tell he was much more open then his sister. "Lead the way, Alex." Still rather unnerved about the whole situation, Alex walked as quickly as he could towards the door that led to the science lab. His pace made Jenni jog to keep up.

"You know our cousin," Jenni said suddenly as they hurried down the hall. Alex stopped, puzzled. "Sabina. She said a lot about you."

Alex felt his face get hot. Sabina! He hadn't heard from her since she moved to the states. That was probably where Jenni and James had just come from. He couldn't believe it. He of all people had to show Sabina's cousins around school. Resentment bubbled up inside him, but he pushed it back down. It wouldn't help anything if he lost his temper right now.

He opened his mouth to reply, but a voice interrupted, saving him. "Alex!" The three of them turned to see Tom Harris jogging towards them. "Oh, hi," he said in surprise when he saw Jenni and James.

"Hello, Tom," Jenni purred before anyone else had a chance to speak. Her eyes flickered slightly with mistrust, but no one noticed. "I've heard much about you." Both Tom and Alex blinked, rather taken aback at her suddenly bold and unafraid attitude. "I'm Jenni." She offered her hand and Tom shook it, still somewhat shocked. "This is James."

"Sabina's cousins," Alex muttered to clarify. Tom shot him a look that said 'yeah right.' Alex had to admit that with her long black hair and small build Jenni didn't look much like Sabina. Jenni's features were smaller too, more defined. And the two girls' skin tones were definitely not similar in any way. Jenni could almost pass for Asian! The only similarity was her stark blue eyes. James was a closer match. He wasn't naturally dark, but had a light tan. His hair was a dark brown color exactly like Sabina's. He even had a couple freckles dotting the bridge of his nose. His eyes, however, were gray-green.

"Alex is showing us around your school. Would you care to join us?" James offered, breaking the awkward silence.

"That's okay, I have to go submit a late paper for social studies," Tom said in an easy-going manner. "Catch you later, Alex."

Alex lifted his hand in farewell as Tom turned and headed for the Social Studies hall. Now that the three of them were alone again, Alex could practically feel their eyes raking across his back, evaluating him. He felt exposed and uncomfortable and couldn't wait to have this tour over with.

It took about twenty minutes and was rather uneventful. James seemed over-interested in the lab room with all the chemicals lined up on the wall. Jenni looked bored until they reach the gym. Her eyes lit up when she saw the rows of soccer balls.

Glancing at her Alex asked, "You play?"

"We both do," Jenni murmured, eyes still glowing. James nudged her and Jenni looked away. She once again assumed the bored expression that had dominated her face. It softened into polite attention when she glanced at Alex and relaxed further when she turned back to James.

She muttered something Alex couldn't hear into her brother's ear. He nodded and smiled. Alex was annoyed.

"What's next?" was all James said. Still irritated, Alex led the way to the cafeteria.

Finally they were done. Alex was supremely glad. Jenni and James were creeping him out. They always seemed to be watching him and it was as if they had never been to school before. Alex conceded to himself that school in America was probably different, but they were still acting strange. All in all they weren't bad kids, but Alex almost resented them. As abnormal as they were, James and Jenni were much more ordinary than he could ever be.

He brought them to the main office, muttered a quick good-bye, and turned to leave. "Alex!" Principal Crowley called after him. Alex turned back. "It seems that Jenni and James have your same home room. Would you mind taking them?"

Of course. Alex nodded and beckoned to Jenni and James. They followed him wordlessly. "How are you in the same grade?" he asked suddenly. They certainly didn't look like twins, but you never could tell.

"I skipped a year," Jenni explained with a shrug. So she was younger. Alex stored away every bit of information he could get from them.

"Where did you move from?"

"New York." It was James who answered this time. "We lived about twenty-five miles south of Albany in a small town called Coxsackie."

Alex made a mental note to look the town up when he got home. By then they had reached Ms. Keller's class. "This is your new home room," Alex said, waving the siblings in. He brought them to the front where Ms. Keller was at her desk.

"Ms. Keller, this is James and Jenni Pleasure. They just moved here from New York," he introduced them

Ms. Keller beamed up at the new students and stood. "Well I must say it's a pleasure to meet you, no pun intended." She laughed at her own joke. Jenni and James gave her suffering smiles. Alex could imagine that they had heard that many times before.

"Principal Crowley told me that you two were Sabina's cousins! I was her favorite teacher you know," Ms. Keller gushed. Alex highly doubted that. Sometimes the teachers were worse than the students when it came to gossip and tall tales. "We had desks brought in for you!" She bustled to the back row. Alex wasn't sure how he felt when he realized that the new students would have desks next to his.

James dropped his shoulder sack on the floor and sat down as soon at he was shown his desk. He didn't bother sitting up straight and slumped down with his long legs pushed out in front of him. Ms. Keller frowned slightly, but said nothing. Examining the desk, which was little more than a piece of wood attached to a chair, James rubbed the laminated name tag at the top. _James Pleasure_ was signed in excellent cursive. He smirked.

Jenni didn't seem as comfortable in the new environment. She slung her shoulder bag onto the bag of her chair and sat down stiffly, keeping her feet tucked beneath her.

James glanced at his sister and muttered something that sounded like "Relax!"

Jenni frowned for a moment before leaning back in her chair. Her feet came out, one close and one stretched out. She let her shoulders slump and rested one arm lazily on the desk's arm. Jenni closed her eyes briefly and when she opened them a big smile had been carefully plastered on her face.

If Alex hadn't been focusing on the transformation he never would have noticed it. Ms. Keller, who had engaged in a brief conversation with her favorite student, turned back. She looked relieved when she saw that her new charges were already settled. "Good luck!" she called before making her way back to the teacher's desk up front.

Alex set his messenger bag on the ground before sitting down. He glanced sideways at James who was getting along quite well with a basketball player in front of him and honed in on Jenni beyond him. She had a slight scowl on her face directed at her name tag. Jenifer Pleasure.

"They spelled my name wrong," she muttered to James. Without pausing in his conversation, James looked. His smile widened a tiny bit. Using a scrap of paper that had suddenly appeared in his hand and the pencil provided at his desk James scrawled a note and passed it to her.

Jenni glanced at it, crumpled the note into a ball, then hurled the offending paper with excellent precision into the waste basket on the other side of the room. When she caught Alex watching, Jenni smiled again and dug a book out of her bag.

She spent the fifteen minutes before class immersed in the pages. Alex didn't have a chance to speak to her or James before the bell rang.

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